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Shed and Shine Podcast Episode 74

Gino’s Riff – Love as a Business Strategy
Air date: August 6, 2025
Hosts: Gino Wickman & Rob Dube

Episode Overview

In this solo riff, Gino Wickman dives deep into the unconventional but transformative idea of “love as a business strategy.” He challenges entrepreneurs to shift their mindset—making decisions from a place of love rather than fear—and explores how infusing love into all aspects of business and personal life unlocks true leadership, healthier relationships, and greater fulfillment. The episode weaves together business anecdotes, personal insights, and practical prompts for listeners to elevate both their own energy and organizational cultures.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Duality: Love vs. Fear

[00:29] Gino introduces the core dichotomy: all decisions are made out of love or fear.
He sets the intention to focus entirely on love, positing that, “to the degree we can focus on love fully, I believe fear doesn’t exist.”

2. A Baseline Exercise – Tuning into Love

[01:15] Gino invites listeners to physically check their vibration/energy level, suggesting:
“Put your hand over your heart. Focus there and feel nothing but love emanating from your chest. Just simply take a few seconds, feel that, take a deep breath, and just relax.”

3. Building Business on Love

[02:01] Gino boldly states, “You can build a business on love.”
- Businesses rooted in love attract and retain great people, cultivate vibrant cultures, and outperform those driven by fear or pure logic.
Gino describes his subtle integration of the love concept into keynotes and company culture over the past five years.

The “Put the Love in It” Story

[03:12] At an EOS Implementer quarterly meeting, Gino shares:
- He was overcome with emotion during a session and urged 200+ implementers to reflect:
  “Do you love EOS? Do you love your clients? Do you love your fellow EOS implementers? Do you love the leadership team of this organization? Do you love being here in this room?”
- The core mantra emerged: “Put the love in it.”
- Gino emphasizes the tangible results: lots of hugs, genuine care, and a company grown to 850 implementers united by love.

4. The Role of Tough Love

[05:03] Gino makes clear that love in business isn’t all “Kumbaya”:
- “If you love the people you work with, you must be completely open and honest with them.”
- Tough conversations—including direct feedback and even firing—should come from love, not fear or avoidance.
Gino recounts being described as “ruthlessly and lovingly honest” and takes pride in that as a leadership standard.

5. Extending Love: Clients, Vendors, Competitors

[06:03] Gino urges listeners to love everyone in their professional ecosystem, including:
- Clients
- Vendors
- Even competitors—“I truly love my competitors. And even when they knock me—and they do knock me often…”
The message is to rise above ego and operate from abundance, not scarcity.

6. Company as Cause, Not Corporation

[07:13] A wisdom from Gino’s father grounds his approach:
- “Remember, Gino, this company is more of a cause than a corporation.”
When Gino would get logical and detached, this statement would realign him to serve from the heart.

7. Love in Personal Life & Relationships

[08:10] Gino pivots to personal relationships, stating:
- “We all just want to be loved unconditionally for who we truly are.”
He minimizes advice about loving family (most people do that instinctively) but highlights:
- The importance of tough love in personal relationships too—honest communication in conflict.
- Self-love: “Love yourself enough to set boundaries and stay strong in those boundaries.”
- Stillness/meditation: “Send love to all of them from your heart. Believe me, they will feel it and you will feel it.”

8. The Natural State of Love

[10:36] Gino’s self-revelation:
- “What I’ve realized is that I’m just a cushy love ball. So that’s my riff on love.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

[00:45] “All decisions are made out of love or fear. On one side, you have love, and on the other side, you have fear.” — Gino
[02:01] “You can build a business on love. And a business built on love attracts great people, retains great people, grows, and has an amazing culture.” — Gino
[03:28] “Put the love in it.” — Gino (mantra from EOS Implementer meetings)
[05:27] “If you love them, you truly love them, you owe it to them to be honest. In my toughest conversations with the people I work with, I just love them, even when firing them.” — Gino
[06:36] “Please consider loving the people you work with, loving your clients and customers, loving your vendors, and get ready…loving your competitors.” — Gino
[07:13] “Remember, Gino, this company is more of a cause than a corporation.” — Gino’s father
[08:30] “We all just want to be loved unconditionally for who we truly are.” — Gino
[09:13] “Love yourself enough to set boundaries and stay strong in those boundaries.” — Gino

Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Topic | |-----------|-----------------------------------------------------| | 00:29 | All decisions: love vs. fear | | 01:15 | Heart exercise—checking your “vibration” | | 02:01 | Love as the basis for company culture & business | | 03:12 | The “put the love in it” moment at EOS meeting | | 05:03 | The necessity of tough love in business | | 06:03 | Extending love to clients, vendors, competitors | | 07:13 | “More of a cause than a corporation” (family story) | | 08:10 | Unconditional love in personal relationships | | 09:13 | Self-love & boundaries | | 10:36 | Gino’s self-discovery as a “cushy love ball” |

Closing Thoughts & Call to Action

Gino concludes by inviting listeners to check their vibration level once more, hoping they’re “vibrating higher” than when they started. He closes with an expression of genuine affection for his audience:

[11:10] “I love you, and please put the love in it.” — Gino

Listeners are encouraged to reflect on their own use of love in both business and personal contexts, and to adopt the “put the love in it” mindset as a guiding principle in all relationships and decisions.

For more resources and next steps, follow the podcast at shedandshinepodcast.com or explore their coaching programs.

This episode is ideal for entrepreneurs and leaders seeking transformative approaches to both company culture and personal growth—challenging the traditional boundaries between strategy and heart.

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[00:00]
A
Hello, and welcome back. This episode I call Love. That's right, love. Now, before I possibly scare you away, as that topic would have scared me away in the past, or you think this is going to get mushy, please hang in there with me. And by the way, it might get mushy. So, in discovery number two, all decisions are made out of love or fear. On one side, you have love, and on the other side, you have fear. In this episode, we are going to focus 100% on love and pretending that fear doesn't exist. Because to the degree we can focus on love fully, I believe fear doesn't exist. And so my hopes are two things. Number one is that you see the possibility of living your life from love. And number two, hope is that you feel yourself vibrating higher at the end of this episode than you do right now. So I'm going to ask you to start by checking yourself and checking your vibration level. Just check your baseline. Feel your body, get a sense of where you are right now. The concept here is that if we can drown in love, most fear, if not all fear, will fall away and we don't have to get caught up in how to shed it, because it will simply no longer exist. And so, here goes. If you will. Please start by putting your hand over your heart. Focus there and feel nothing but love emanating from your chest. Just simply take a few seconds, feel that, Take a deep breath, and just relax. Now, as we dive in and talk about love, I'm going to start with business, because I believe very strongly that you can build a business on love. And a business built on love attracts great people, retains great people, grows and has an amazing culture. And I believe I do that with all of my companies and this love topic and letting this love topic creep into business. I realize it's been brewing for me for the last five years as I have incorporated it subtly in my talks. And there's three very specific talks that I've given in the last five years where I subtly plant that seed for the world. Now, with that said, I want to share one very specific instance in business, and that was at one of our quarterly meetings with all of our EOS implementers. And in that particular meeting, There were about 200 of us there we were collectively focusing on how to help our clients get all the right people in the right seats. And as we were doing a deep dive into this topic and tool and content, I had this incredible, overwhelming feeling that came over me and I couldn't stop myself. And I was just compelled to Share with the group the concept of putting the love in it. And what came to me in thinking about our clients and all of the people in our organization, I kind of shared this passionate plea and this question I asked and I thought about what we had built over the last two decades. And I just asked and I challenged everyone. I said, do you love eos? Do you love your clients? Do you love your fellow EOS implementers? Do you love the leadership team of this organization? Do you love being here in this room? And all of that culminated in this simple phrase, put the love in it. And what I realized is, as we come together every quarter now, 850 EOS implementers strong, it's a love in it has always been 11. These are people that love each other, love the company, love our product, love our clients, love what we do. And there are lots of hugs at these quarterly meetings. I do my best to try and hug every single person. It's hard to get to 100 or 200 and in some cases, 800, but I certainly try my best. Now, just as important as love in building a great company is tough love. So it's not always Kumbaya. If you love the people you work with, you must be completely open and honest with them. This pertains to giving direct feedback, calling out issues, discussing issues, as well as firing people. You can do all of these things with love. I'm speaking from experience. If you love them, you truly love them. You owe it to them to be honest. In my toughest conversations with the people I work with, I just love them, even when firing them. Someone once told me that I am ruthlessly and lovingly honest. And I wear that as a badge of honor. And I urge you to do the same. And so please consider loving the people you work with, loving your clients and customers, loving your vendors, and get ready. Loving your competitors. I truly love my competitors. And even when they knock me, and they do knock me often on the subject of building your company, on love, I can remember when I was running the family business 30 years ago now, when I would start to get in my head and get very logical, my dad would say to me, remember, Gino, this company is more of a cause than a corporation. And that would bring me right back to my heart. And instantly I would make better decisions and I would be a better leader for the people that reported to me. As I now shift to your personal life, that was business. Now we're going to the personal side. I'll share something that a friend said to me that is a common thread that hopefully flows through both business and personal for you. And that is that we all just want to be loved unconditionally for who we truly are. I do. I hope you do. That kind of says it all. So in your personal life, most of the time, it's easier to feel and experience love compared to business when you think of family. And sometimes it's not. But my point there is I'm not going to spend much time on loving your loved ones. You know how to do that. But where I do want to spend some time is on any tension that might exist in your personal relationships. Just like in business, I urge you to practice tough love with friends and family when necessary. If you truly love them, you owe it to them. So during conflict bumpy spots, share your feelings honestly and openly from your heart with the same level of love you are feeling right now. And I would add, love yourself enough to set boundaries and stay strong in those boundaries. Love yourself. Try it now, because if you truly love yourself, it will be easier to love others. One other fun thing to do is during your stillness practices, send love to all of them from your heart. Believe me, they will feel it and you will feel it. Pure love is our natural state. What I've realized is that I'm just a cushy love ball. So that is my riff on love. And I ask you now to check your vibration level, check your energy, check your frequency. Hopefully you're vibrating higher than when this podcast started. I close with this I love you and please put the love in it. Thank you for listening in today. We truly appreciate you taking the time to spend with us and please tune in for the next episode. Until then, if you'd like to see where you are on your true self journey, go to shedandshinepodcast.com to take the true self assessment and receive personalized guidance. If you're all ready to begin your inner world journey with Rob and myself, please join us for the next round of the 10 disciplines group coaching program. We wish you all the best in freeing your true self. Stay focused and much love.